


A Beginner's Guide to Aliens and Other Related Problems

by MadHattie



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alien AU, Modern-ish Au?, Other, background Aria/Jacqui, everyone is trans and nothing hurts, well some things hurt but not that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-27 23:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15035840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadHattie/pseuds/MadHattie
Summary: Mako Trig's life is already pretty weird, so when an alien spaceship crashes near his home, it's not exactly par for course, but he can handle it.(Or, Cass gets stranded on Earth, and it's up to everyone else to get them back home)





	1. Chapter 1

The sky was a pale purple when Mako finally got off of work, bone-tired and itching to leave. The extra hours of daylight that summer had granted him were finally starting to fade, leaving behind an early darkness lit only by the arcade’s neon glow. With one hand he undid the top button of his stupid uniform polo shirt, sliding his skateboard forward with the other and hopping on while it was in motion. If he went fast enough, he could probably make it back home before it was completely dark, but it would be a small margin. He sped up, urging the wheels over the uneven sidewalk and trying to ignore the way it rumbled like the old boardwalk roller coaster.

 

The rough ride was almost enough to hide the buzzing of his phone in his pocket, but not quite. He fumbled to get it out, almost dropping it twice as he did so, and cursed as his skateboard ran over a crack in the sidewalk right as he put the phone to his ear.

 

“Having a good trip home, I see.” Aria’s voice was playful and teasing, even over his shitty phone speakers.

 

“I almost dropped my phone in a gutter for you.” Mako smiled, if only because he knew she couldn’t see it. “What’s up?"

 

“Are you still down to to go out tonight? AuDy said that they would drive, so we don’t have to borrow anyone else’s car,” she said.

 

“I dunno. I’ve kinda felt like shit for most of the day.” Mako yawned so widely that he thought his jaw would unhinge. On the other side of the line, Aria hummed.

 

“When’s the last time you took off your binder?”

 

“Uh…” he looked directly forward, as if avoiding her unseen gaze would save him from having to answer the question.

 

“Have you at least taken your meds today?” From miles away, Mako could feel her fix him with a hard stare.

 

“UhhHHH.”

 

“ _ Mako. _ ”

 

As Aria star ted to lecture, Mako turned his attention to where he was going, easing his skateboard off of the sidewalk and onto the deserted street. Most of the tiny shoebox  houses in his neighborhood were owned by tourists who only lived there in the summer. This far into autumn, all he had to look out for were piles of abandoned newspapers and places where haphazardly maintained pebble lawns spilled rocks onto the street.

 

Just above the horizon a light blinked; a far-off satellite probably. Mako watched as it carved a streak into the sky. Maybe it was a falling star then, but instead of fading out it seemed to get brighter the longer he looked at it. It swelled to the size of a coin, then to the size the sun would be if it were still in the sky, then larger still.

 

Oh shit, was it coming towards him?

 

Distantly, he could hear a sharp wailing, getting louder by the minute. The light sharpened in the sky, becoming less brightness and more shape, first a couple of smooth ovals, then something that was looking more and more like a sci-fi spaceship wreathed in flames. It flashed above him, heading to where Mako knew the ocean curved inland to make a swampy little bay. It was low enough now that he could swear he saw it carve the tops off some trees.

 

“Uh, Aria? I think I need to hang up now. I’ll talk to you later.”

 

“What-?”

 

“Loveyoubye!”

 

Not seconds after he moved his thumb from the end call button, Mako heard a noise like the world’s largest belly flop. He pulled a u-turn in the street and started racing ahead, trying to conjure up a mental map of the fastest way to get to the water. If he took a right on 5th, he could cut through that empty parking lot to save some time and then follow Parson Street down to the water’s edge. He just had to get there before someone stopped him from checking out whatever the hell this was.

 

 

It was nearly dark by the time he reached the water’s edge, skidding to a halt on sandy ground. The water was murky and dark, waves rippling out from a large shape that had plowed into a bank of reeds, carving a path into the muck.

 

The shape… it didn’t look like any kind of airplane Mako had ever seen; it didn’t even look like one of those UFOs from cheesy movies. As he got closer, he could see that the surface wasn’t smooth, but textured with a swirling marbled pattern. It had one large compartment almost as big as a house, and two smaller ones off to the side that might have been engines. A large glass window towards the front was shattered in a spiderweb pattern, and inside-

 

Inside there was a person.

 

Or at least, there was a person-shaped object. It had limbs, and a head, and was lying slumped forward in its seat. Its chest heaved forward against a harness like it was struggling to breathe.

 

“Oh  _ shit! _ ”

 

Mako rushed forward, stripping off his socks and shoes and then, after a moment’s hesitation, took off the rest of his clothes, leaving him in just his boxers and a binder. He made it to the edge of the tiny strip of sand that separated the land from the water and leapt forward.

 

The water was cold enough to hurt as he jumped in, his muscles seizing up as he tried to stay afloat. He kicked at an abandoned plastic bag that had tangled with his foot and paddled forward through the dark water, trying to keep his eyes on the person inside the ship. The cockpit was nearly underwater now, rivulets of water streaming through the cracked glass. He wasn’t sure how large the space inside was, how much of the room was already filled with water. He wasn’t sure how much time he had left.

 

When he finally got to the ship, his first thought was that the glass wasn’t as broken as he thought. It was cracked, yes, enough that water was leaking in, but there were no openings large enough for him to swim through. At best there was a mesh of lines where the cracks converged.

 

“Ah shit, Aria’s gonna kill me for this,” Mako whispered to himself, and he slammed a fist into the glass.

 

The window collapsed inward from the force of the water, filling the cockpit with muck. Mako maneuvered himself inside as best he could without cutting himself on the long teeth of the glass. There was already a long cut up his forearm that oozed blood when he moved too much, but he could deal with that as long as he didn’t get more hurt.

 

The pilot was leaning forward against their harness, their long wavy hair hanging in damp strings around their face. Their eyes were closed, but they were breathing. Farther back in the cockpit, another figure was crumpled in a heap against a wall, as if they had been thrown there during the impact. A flower of blood bloomed across their forehead. They weren’t moving.

 

Mako shook his head and reached over to undo the pilot’s harness. Their chest moved raggedly, breath coming in thin gasps. They didn’t have any major injuries that Mako could see, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t injured. He scooped them up as best he could with the water rushing in around him. It was up to his waist now, but at least that would make it easier for him to drag the pilot out. With one last glance at the figure slumped against the back of the room, Mako kicked off from the pilot’s chair and pulled the figure in his arms out through the window.

 

Swimming with another person in his arms was harder than he expected. He had seen lifeguards at the beach rescue people at least once, and it didn’t look so hard then, but they also had those floaty tubes, and they were probably a lot more buff than him. Mako paddled awkwardly with his feet while he tucked his arms under the pilot’s armpits, trying hard to keep their head above the water.

 

Luckily, it was a short distance to the shore. Mako collapsed into the land, dragging the pilot behind him. When he knew that he had enough space to stand, he slung their arm over his shoulder and lifted them up, supporting them like he would Aria when she’d had a bit too much to drink. The only difference was that Aria was only taller than him when she was wearing heels, and this guy was easily pushing six foot. Mako pulled them forward, trying not to let their feet drag too much on the ground. If he used his skateboard, maybe it would be easier? He could rest their feet on the board and drag them like that. Yeah, that would work.

 

Carefully, he maneuvered them into place, stopping quickly to pick up his clothes and shove them under his arm. He might as well walk home in his underwear- that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing about this situation. With one hand holding the pilot’s arm in place over his shoulder and the other wrapped around their waist, he set off slowly in the direction of home.

 

 

Mako’s arms were killing him by the time he finally reached his front door, his shoulders sagging to one side with the weight of the pilot draped over him. Fumbling his key out of his pocket,  he shoved it at the lock blindly, sighing in relief when it went in. He left the door open and his skateboard outside, hands too full to deal with either one. As he dragged the pilot into his bedroom, he said a silent “thank you” to his past self for actually remembering to put sheets on the bed, and laid them down as gently as he could.

 

Now that he had a moment to take a breath, Mako could finally get a good look at the person he had saved. Their hair was dark, a black that was almost blue, and was only half held back in a braid. Tangled in it was a golden band shaped to look like a crown of laurels. They were older than him if the stress lines in their brown forehead were anything to go by, but not significantly. As Mako skimmed his fingers over their body, checking for injuries as best he could, he found a set of horizontal gashes along their neck, almost covered by flaps of skin. They weren’t bleeding, but when Mako went to run a finger over them the pilot whined, a high-pitched, pained noise, and he snatched his hand away.

 

Their clothes were elegant, draped fabrics, long sleeves, and embroidery on the hem of a long skirt. But there was a starkness to it too, an almost military quality to the rows of pins across their shoulders. Their tall black boots looked ready for combat.

 

While he checked for broken bones, Mako couldn’t help but notice that the pilot’s fingers were webbed, almost to the first knuckle. He picked up their hand to look closer, and as he did their long sleeve fell back, revealing patches of bright teal scales all down their forearm.

 

“Holy shit.” Mako laughed to himself, a high, almost fearful sound of disbelief. “You’re an alien.”


	2. Chapter 2

Mako collapsed backward onto the floor, his head colliding against the wall with a soft  _ thunk _ . He tried to take a deep breath, but it stuck in his throat, and he let it out with a sigh.

 

There was an alien in his bed. An injured, unconscious alien whose ship just crashed into the ocean.

 

Of all the shit he’d gotten himself into, at least this was a new one.

 

Slowly, he pulled himself up, bracing himself on the side of the mattress. The pilot was just as asleep as they were a few minutes ago when Mako stumbled away from them in shock. Their dark hair fell in rivers across the pillowcase, and their mouth was open just a crack. Apart from some scrapes and bruises, most of their injuries seemed to be internal, which wasn't necessarily a good thing, but it did mean that they weren't bleeding out on Mako's bed.

 

Awkwardly, Mako moved to take the laurels out of the pilot’s hair. Having a metal ring around their head probably wasn't hurting their sleep, but it definitely wasn't helping either. The crown didn’t lift off cleanly, but tangled in the pilot’s hair as Mako pulled at it. Beneath his hands, the pilot’s face wrinkled with displeasure.

 

“Okay, sorry, I’ll leave it,” Mako whispered, backing away. He bounced on his heels, looking for something else that he could do, something helpful that wasn’t just standing around staring at the  _ alien  _ in his bed. He could take off their wet clothes and put them in something dry, but that would be way too awkward and invasive, and would probably involve way too much maneuvering. He could take off their boots just so there would be slightly less mud on his bed, or maybe it would be better to just put a blanket over them? They were probably cold from the water, and he didn’t want them to get sick on top of being injured. But then what did he know about alien biology, because right, this person was an alien.

 

Before Mako’s mood could shift too far towards either panic or excitement, the front door creaked to signal that it was opening.

 

“Mako? You good? You didn’t call me back!” Aria’s voice filled every room of the tiny house, making her presence known. Mako scrambled out of his bedroom and sprinted to the door, tripping first over a pile of clothes, and then a tangle of wires and a game controller. By the time he reached Aria, she was already in the hallway with AuDy close behind her.

 

“You left your door open,” AuDy said as they wandered into the kitchen and examined an empty Chinese takeout container. “We thought that we should come in just in case you were hurt or dead.”

 

“I’m not dead, there’s just a fucking  _ alien _ in my bedroom!” Mako’s voice started at a whisper and raised in panic until it reached normal levels.

 

“Woah, if you had someone over, you could've just said something.” Aria backed up a pace as she spoke, but Mako caught her eyes flickering towards the door to his bedroom. He reached out and grabbed onto her sleeve.

 

“No, not like that, I mean like a literal alien crashed in the bay while I was on my way home and now they’re passed out in my bed and I don’t know what to do please help.”

 

“Are you for real?” Aria’s eyes grew wide. “Like, this isn’t just some kind of weird joke?”

 

“Aria, when have I ever lied to you?” Mako said, desperation growing in his voice.

 

“Well there was that one time that you borrowed my jacket for, like, a couple months, and-”

 

“I mean about important stuff!” Mako ran a hand frantically through his hair. “I don’t lie to you about important stuff, and I’m not lying about this.”

 

“Okay.” Aria took a deep breath. “Okay. I believe you.”

 

“ _ Thank  _ you-”

 

Aria cut him off. “Don’t be an asshole about it. It is totally and completely normal for me to not believe you when you say that you have an alien in you house, who, by the way, I have yet to even see, which is really a show of trust to be honest.”  

 

“Do you want to see them?” Mako jerked his head towards his bedroom door. “Actually, scratch that, can you look at them and try to see if they’re okay? I tried to check for broken bones and stuff, but I’m not actually good at being a doctor.”

 

“Mako I’m not--” Aria shook her head. “Fine. AuDy, do you want to see an alien?”

 

AuDy poked their head out from the kitchen. “I would not be opposed.”

 

“Cool! Field trip!”

 

“Mako, we’re just going into your bedroom.”

 

“ _ Field. Trip. _ ”

 

 

Mako’s bedroom was, upon reflection, a bit too small to fit four people, even if one of those people was passed out on the bed. AuDy jammed themself awkwardly in the corner between the dresser and the mattress, while Aria stood against the wall with Mako, her arms folded over her chest.

 

“They just look like a normal human to me, Mako,” she said. “Are you sure about what you saw?”

 

“I totally am, look.” Mako moved over to the bed and picked the pilot’s arm up as gently as he could. He splayed their fingers for Aria to see and, when she responded only with a tight-lipped hum, he rolled back their sleeve to show off the bright teal of their scales.

 

“Aria,” AuDy said, their voice as level as always, “I think that this person may actually be an alien.”

 

“Yeah.” Aria’s voice was almost a squeak. “I think you’re right.”

 

Mako grinned. “Told you so,” he said as he laid the pilot’s arm back down on the bed.

 

“Okay, so what do we do now?” Aria drew closer to the bed, glancing up and down the pilot’s body. “I don’t think that there’s anything that I could tell you about their injuries that you couldn’t figure out yourself.” She put two fingers to their neck, checking for a pulse. “I mean, they’re alive, and they might have a concussion, but, Mako, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t have any way to do an x-ray or anything. We don’t even know whether their anatomy is the same as ours! Unless we bring them to a hospital, I don’t think there’s much that we can do.”

 

“We cannot bring an alien to a hospital.” AuDy said, their voice firm.

 

Mako nodded. “Yeah, I agree with AuDy that the hospital is, like, a  _ super _ bad idea.”

 

“Okay, so do we just wait for them to wake up?” Aria asked, her voice hushed. “We don’t know when that’ll be, and Mako, your couch is definitely not big enough for you to sleep on.”

 

“You underestimate my ability to be compact while sleeping.”

 

“That was super not the point that I was trying to make.” Aria twisted a lock of her hair between her fingers. “I don’t want to move them, just in case they’re more injured than I think, but I also have no idea if they should be sleeping right now, because they say that you shouldn’t go to sleep if you have a concussion and-”

 

The springs on the mattress squeaked and groaned as the pilot turned over in their sleep, a pinched look forming on their face. For a moment the room was silent, every waking occupant holding their breath and watching to see what would happen. Then the pilot opened their mouth and let out a loud snore before turning over again.

 

“Well, at least now we know that they’re not paralyzed.” AuDy deadpanned, breaking the silence like an errant soap bubble.

 

Mako took a step towards the bed. “Do you think we should wake them up?”

 

“Probably not.” Aria said, still pressed against the wall.

 

“Too late, I’m doing it anyway.” Mako reached out a hand and shook the pilot’s shoulder gently. Behind him, he could hear Aria gasp.

 

The pilot’s nose wrinkled, and their eyes screwed even tighter shut for a second. Then those same eyes fluttered open, revealing flashes of gold under dark eyelashes and black pupils widened with fear. The pilot gasped in a breath, and as they did, lines of gills fluttered open on their neck, exposing pink flesh under tan skin.

 

Then they sat up, a sudden motion that nearly knocked their head into Mako’s. They grasped the sheets beneath them in a white-knuckled group and looked wildly around the room.

 

“Where am I?” they asked, their voice draped in the rich tones of an unfamiliar accent. “What happened to my ship?”

 

“You crashed,” Mako said before anyone else could think to speak. “And now you’re in my house. Don’t worry, you didn’t crash into the house at all, I carried you here. Your ship is probably still in the bay.”

 

The pilot looked no less concerned at Mako’s words than they had before. “What planet is this?” they asked, and as they did so they reached up to touch the crown of metal laurels resting in their hair.

 

“You’re on Earth.” This time Aria stepped forward, caution bleeding into her tone. “Uh, Milky Way galaxy? I don’t know how much information you need here.”

 

“I know where Earth is.” The pilot pinched their nose and sighed. “Eidelons alive, I really screwed this one up.”

 

AuDy spoke up from their corner. “Who are you?” they said, their tone either a forced disinterest, or a real lack of care for the alien in the room. With them, it was sometimes hard to tell.

 

The pilot took a deep breath. “I am Cassander Timaeus Berenice, third scion of the house Pelagios.”

 

“Do you have a nickname, or do people say all those words when they talk to you?” The words were hardly out of Mako’s mouth before Aria punched him in the arm. He swung back blindly and missed.

 

Cassander gave a bark of a laugh. “My siblings call me “Cass,” so I guess you could call me that if “Cassander” is really too much of a mouthful for you.”

 

“Cool,” Mako nodded enthusiastically. “So how’d you end up here, Cass? Besides falling out of the sky I mean.”

 

“I didn’t fall.” Cass tightened their grip on the sheets. “My ship was shot down by someone on this planet. I wasn't supposed to even be near here- there are rules about interacting with planets that haven’t figured out space travel, but my sibling had to go and start a revolution, then flee to a planet halfway across the sector, and then my other sibling had to send me to try to negotiate, and my path took me past Earth, where my ship was shot out of the fucking sky.” Cass took a deep breath and silence rushed into the room like air into a vacuum. “Forgive me. I’m a bit stressed.”

 

“That is understandable.” AuDy piped up from the corner of the room.

 

“Hey can we go back to the shooting part? Because I think that needs to be discussed further.” Aria said. “Actually, probably all of this needs to be discussed further, but let’s start with that.”

 

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Cass pinched the bridge of their nose. “I couldn’t exactly get a good look while I was getting hit. All I can say is that it came from the direction of Earth, and then I was caught up in the planet’s gravitational pull and falling out of the sky.”

 

“Can you really fall if you’re in space?”

 

“Mako, that’s not the question to be asking.” Aria moved closer to the bed and kneeled down to look Cass in the eye. “Are you hurt at all? Is there anything that we can do to help?”

 

Cass sighed and squeezed their eyes shut for a second. “I’m well enough. That ship has a number of safety measures to prevent death in the event of a crash. Unfortunately, they only really work when you’re secured in your seat.” They paused for a second, looking down at their hands. “I’m pretty sure I know why Platon isn’t here.”

 

Aria looked over at Mako for a moment. All he could do was hold back a frown and shake his head.

 

“Cass,” she said, her voice soft, “I’m sorry that all of this happened. We’ll try to help you as best we can.”

 

“You can stay here as long as you need,” Mako piped up. As the words left his mouth he remembered what Aria had said before, about the fact that he only had one bed. It was fine, he thought,  he could deal with it.

 

“Thank you for all your help, really.” Cass shifted upward in bed. “But I don’t want to impose. If I could just send a message to one of my siblings, then someone can come pick me up.”

 

Mako shifted uncomfortably. “Where did you say that you were from, again?”

 

“Apostalos.” Cass frowned. “It’s not all that far. Your ships might not be able to make it there, but a good long-range communicator should be able to connect with the closest outpost.”

 

Mako looked to Aria. Aria looked to AuDy. AuDy looked to Mako.

 

“We do not have device with such capabilities.” AuDy’s voice was remarkably calm as they delivered the news. “Others might, but their technology is inaccessible to the public. Unless you would like to be turned in to the authorities, our options are limited.”

 

Cass shook their head, sending their wavy hair flying. “No, that’s an awful idea. It’s bad enough that I’ve met you three, no offense. Establishing contact with any government would be a political nightmare, and we’re having enough trouble as it is with this Eidelons-damned civil war.” They slumped back in the bed, closing their eyes and sighing.

 

“We’ll do as much as we can to help you.” Aria’s voice was soft, but held a sureness that couldn’t be faked. “For now, though, get some rest. You’ve had a long day.”

 

“Yeah.” Cass sounded as if they had taken a blow to the heart. “Yeah. I guess there’s not much else I can do.”

 

“We’ll just leave you be then.” Aria swooped over to AuDy and Mako as she said that, pushing them gently out the door to the bedroom.

 

 

“What are we going to  _ do?” _ As soon as they reached the kitchen, Aria broke out in a whisper not much quieter than her regular speaking voice.

 

“Why are  _ you _ asking that? I’m the one whose house they’re in!”

 

“Well if  _ that’s _ the problem, then I can just bring them over to me and AuDy’s house. Our couch is bigger anyway.” Aria twisted a piece of hair nervously between her fingers.

 

“Aria, you and I live in an apartment building. The chances of Cass being seen there are much higher than they would be here, as all of Mako’s neighbors have gone home for the winter.” AuDy, the one beacon of calm in any storm, had returned to rummaging around Mako’s kitchen.

 

“Fuck, you’re right. I hate it when you’re right.” Aria started to pace, a difficult task in such a small room.

 

“Look, guys, let’s just take this one step at a time.” Mako stepped in front of Aria to stop her in her tracks. “If we don’t handle this before tomorrow, it’s not like the world will end. We can take some time to rest and do some thinking.”

 

“Mako that’s… a surprisingly good idea.” Aria said.

 

“I know, right?” Mako crossed the room in two steps and took a bottle of mustard out of AuDy’s hands, putting it back in the fridge. “You guys can go home, and we can all get together tomorrow and figure out what to do then.

 

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Aria asked.

 

“Sure enough that I’m telling you to go home.” Mako grabbed Aria’s shoulders and steered her towards the door. “Go sleep. That’s what you’re always telling me to do, right?”

 

“Yeah, but that’s on a regular night.” Aria barely seemed to notice when AuDy took her hand and pulled her outside.

 

“It’ll all be  _ fine _ !” Mako waved as Aria and AuDy piled into AuDy’s old minivan. As soon as the car started, he closed the door and took a deep breath. This might not be fine.


	3. Chapter 3

Mako woke with a cramp in his neck and a sneaking suspicion that something weird had happened. Whatever that thing was, though, it wasn’t as pressing as the chorus of air horns he had set as his alarm. He fumbled around blindly for a second before finding his phone shoved between the couch cushions, and why was he sleeping on the  _ couch? _ His phone wasn’t completely dead, so it wasn’t like he passed out while watching stupid videos again, and he had a cheap fleece blanket draped over him, so he probably meant to fall asleep.

 

Well, whatever had happened, at least he had woken up an hour and a half before work instead of, say, five minutes before his shift was supposed to start.

 

With a yawn, he shuffled his way into the kitchen. He was out of milk, but dry cereal was better than no cereal, he rationalized as he poured a fistfull of choco puffs into his mouth. With breakfast sorted, he shuffled into his room to see if he had a clean uniform left.

 

It was there that he finally encountered the problem.

 

“Alien!” he said in a voice that absolutely was not a squeak. He stumbled backward out of his room as quietly as he could while panicking. The figure in the bed didn’t move an inch.

 

Right, last night. He remembered now. The spaceship. Cass.

 

His phone blared again, his “get your ass out of bed right now or else you’re going to be fired” alarm this time, which was the exact same air horn noise, just with the volume increased to its maximum setting. He nearly tripped over his own feet trying to grab it from the kitchen table and then, when he couldn’t unlock it fast enough, he threw it down the hallway into the living room, feeling only a brief sense of relief when it hit the couch instead of the wall.

 

In the bedroom, Cass made no indication that they had heard anything.

 

“Shitshitshit.” Mako ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t just leave Cass alone like this, but also he had already taken too many “sick” days this month, and if he missed work again, he was out of a job. He couldn’t even call Aria to cover for him, because he was at least 99% sure that she was also working today.

 

He peeked into the bedroom again. Cass was sound asleep, their long hair draped in tangled clumps over the pillow. Their chest rose and fell in an even rhythm. If Mako didn’t know any better, he would think that they were just sleeping, and hell, maybe they were. But sleeping was also a big part of recovering, probably. He didn’t know a lot about biology, much less alien biology.

 

Mako shuffled into the room, walking on the very tips of his toes. A plan was starting to emerge in his mind, and given his track record, it probably wouldn’t work out the way he wanted it to, but it was still an idea. He opened up a drawer and pulled out an ugly red polo and a pair of khaki pants, making sure to make as little noise as possible. With another glance over at Cass’s sleeping form, he moved into the kitchen before getting dressed. Almost as an afterthought, he grabbed a napkin as he pulled on his shirt and a pen as he buttoned his pants. He paused for a second, thinking about what exactly he should write before scribbling a quick note.

 

_ Had to go to work for a bit, but if all goes well I should be back soon. There’s food in the fridge and painkillers in the bathroom. See you soon! _

 

Without even thinking, Mako found himself doodling a smiling face holding out a thumbs up underneath the note. Then his phone went off again in the other room, this time his “get your ass out the door” alarm, and he nearly dropped the pen in surprise. He ran a hand through his hair in a haphazard attempt to comb it, used one foot to pull his skateboard out from where it had ended up underneath the table, and made his way to the door.

 

For a second he paused at the threshold. He looked back at the house, seemingly empty if he didn’t know any better. Then he shook his head and locked the door behind him.

 

 

“Oh good, you’re here,” was the first thing Mako heard when he walked in the back entrance of the arcade. Orth looked up from his computer for only a moment before looking back down again. “You’re on prize counter duty until two. Oh, and the lady who always tries to shake the coin machine is here again, so keep an eye out for her.”

 

“You got it, Orth my man.” Mako said, trying to sound calm. He gave Orth two finger guns. Super calm.

 

“I’m not your man, I’m your boss.” Orth sighed and rubbed his temples. “Just go do your job.”

 

“Ay ay, cap’n!” Mako saluted Orth and turned on this heel towards the main hall.

 

 

The sound and color of the main floor hit him like a wave, like it always did. The games chirped and flashed, desperate for attention. Cold ocean breezes brought in the scent of grease and sugar from the few food stands still open. The only saving grace was that the late September air was cold enough to keep the crowds down. A few latecomers and locals milled around the boardwalk outside wearing windbreakers and sweatshirts with their shorts and flip flops, but hardly anyone strayed onto the sand.

 

Aria was refilling the small prize bins when he approached, pouring cheap plastic kazoos into a display container. Her back was turned, and beneath the noise of the games he could hear her hum a few notes of her own tune.

 

“If I add some cool beat-boxing to that song, will you name it after me?”

 

Aria whipped her head around at the sound of his voice, nearly dropping the bin she was holding.

 

“ _ Mako!” _ she said in as much of a stage whisper as the volume of the room would allow. “Why are you here? What about Cass?”

 

“They’re fine!” Mako swiveled his head to make sure that no one was looking before hopping over the counter. “Everything’s fine. Look, Orth told me that if I missed another day of work he was going to have to fire me, so I had to come in, but I have a plan that will get me out of here early; I just need your help.”

 

“Is Cass okay?” Aria glanced around quickly. “Mako, even if you have a plan, I don’t think you should have left them alone.”

 

“They were asleep when I left-- I didn’t want to just wake them up.” Mako said, trying to sound confident in his decision. “If I’m lucky, I can get back before they wake up.”

 

“Hey!”

 

Mako and Aria both turned in a single smooth motion. On the other side of the counter, a child peeked his head up over the surface, barely tall enough for his breath to make a circle of fog on the glass.

 

“Hi there! Can I help you?” Aria’s customer service voice was filled with a robotic sweetness, fake like the sugar substitute she poured into her coffee every morning.

 

“I got five tickets.” The boy placed them on the counter in a crumpled heap. “Can I get a prize?”

 

“Sure! For five tickets you can get a sticker, or a spider ring.”

 

“I want the lava lamp!”

 

Aria’s cheerful facade twitched almost imperceptibly. “The lava lamp is five  _ thousand _ tickets. You don’t have enough tickets right now to get it.”

 

“Aww.” The boy’s face scrunched up into a pout. “That’s no fair!”

 

Mako leaned over the counter. “All you have to do is play skee ball a bunch of times. The sooner you start, the sooner you can get the lava lamp.”

 

He hardly even finished his sentence before the boy was off and running towards the skee ball machines.

 

“Okay.” Mako swiveled around to face Aria again. “I need you to call me, but I need it to be when Orth is here so that he doesn’t think I’m lying about getting a call. I’ll tell him that it’s my mom or my sister or something, and that it’s a family emergency and I need to go home.”

 

Aria pursed her lips. “You think that will work?”

 

“Yeah, Orth’s a nice guy. He wouldn’t keep me if it was an emergency. Plus, look around.” He made a sweeping gesture at the mostly empty arcade floor. “There’s barely anybody here. He can afford to let me go home early.”

 

“Okay.” Aria fiddled with one of her rings. “It's a good enough plan, I just don't know when Orth's gonna come out here next. He already did his morning rounds, and like you said, we're not short-staffed or anything, so he doesn't need to help us out.”

 

“We'll figure something out if we need to.” Mako shrugged. “Say that someone wanted to talk to the manager about the claw machine not being fair again, I dunno.”

 

“God don't even remind me. That woman was hell on Earth.”

 

“Oh, I know.” Mako flopped forward to lean against the counter. “But don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.”

 

 

“Something” turned out to to be a claim of a malfunctioning DDR machine after 30 minutes of waiting for something to happen. Mako watched as Aria guided an exhausted-looking Orth out of his office and onto the main floor. Her hand slipped into her pocket and pressed “call” on the already dialed number. Not a second passed before Mako’s phone exploded in a burst of pop music. He pretended to glance at the screen for a second, as if he didn’t already know who was calling him.

 

“Aria!” he yelled across the room. “I really need to take this, can you cover me for a few minutes?”

 

“Sure!” Aria called back. Behind her, Orth seemed to gain five more stress wrinkles.

 

“Awesome!” He moved from behind the counter as fast as he could without hopping over it, because the last time he did that Orth got mad and told him that he would have to scrub down the counter if he did it again. Then he ducked through Orth’s office and out the back entrance, his phone to his ear the whole time.

 

The five minutes he stood out by the back entrance dragged on for far longer than the clock on his phone told him. A breeze off the ocean picked up and wormed its way under the collar of his shirt, and for a moment he had to fight down a shiver. He had to stay out here long enough to make it seem like this was a serious phone conversation that he was having, but not so long that it seemed like Ted had called him up for an impromptu rap battle again.

 

He wondered, briefly, if Cass had woken up yet.

 

 

“Hey Orth,” Mako made a beeline for Orth’s desk as soon as he worked up the nerve to go back inside. He tried to compose his face into something between sadness and distress. The older man looked up with the same exhausted acceptance that he seemed to confront everything with.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

Mako bit his lip. “Well, I just got a call from my sister. Apparently my mom is in the hospital...” he trailed off, not sure what else to say.

 

Orth’s expression softened. “Go home, Mako. I’m not going to keep you when you’re having a family emergency.

 

Mako tried to keep himself from collapsing in relief. “Thanks Orth,” he said.

 

“It’s no problem. I hope your mom is okay.”

 

He sucked in a breath. “Me too. Thanks again.” Then Mako grabbed his skateboard and hurried out the door before his internal victory dance could blow his cover.

 

 

He made it home in near record time, the minimal offseason traffic completely nonexistent in the middle of the day. His skateboard skidded to a halt right in front of his doorstep, nearly pitching him off in his rush. The door rattled open at his touch, and there was Cass, very much awake and sitting on his couch.

 

“Hi,” Mako said, suddenly realizing how out of breath he was.

 

“Hey.” Cass was curled up on the couch, their legs tucked underneath them. They were still wearing the clothes that they had fallen asleep in, the same clothes that they had been wearing when their ship crashed. “You’re back.”

 

“Yeah I- I had to go work.” He shut the door behind him. “I, um, I left a note.”

 

“This?” Cass reached over to a side table and grabbed a folded-up napkin written on in a familiar hand. “I can’t read this. I don’t know any of these characters.”

 

“Oh. shit.” Mako’s face fell. “But wait, we’re speaking English right now! Why can’t you read it if you can speak English?”

 

“I have an advanced translation technology prototype that was given to me.” Cass pointed to a dangling silver earring. “To me it sounds like you’re speaking Apostalisian. Unfortunately, it can’t translate text the same way it can speech.”

 

“Wow, somebody should get on that.” Mako regretted his words for a second, but then he saw the smile creep onto Cass’s face. “I mean, not me, because I’m not sure where I would even start with something like that, but somebody else.”

 

“I’ll make sure to let someone know that you made the request,” Cass said, their tone desert-dry, “just as soon as… I get back…” They trailed off.

 

Mako sat down on the floor in front of Cass. “I'll do everything that I can to help you get home, I promise.” he said, not sure of how much he would actually be able to do. It didn't matter, it was the thought that counted.

 

“Thanks.” Cass didn’t smile, but there was a warmth in their eyes.

 

Just then, Mako's stomach growled, a sound that chased away any silence.

 

“Hmm!” he said, “I guess I should eat some lunch. Do you want lunch?”

 

“Yeah,” Cass said. “Let's get lunch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surfaces momentarily from where I'm drowning in school work  
> sorry for the wait on this one  
> thanks as always to Air for editing


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic is back from the dead! also I graduated from college

In less than a week, living with Cass began to feel normal. They hung around the house most of the time, not having anywhere else to go, and still not well enough to wander around much. 

On the second day, Cass sat across from Mako at the kitchen table and twisted a napkin in their hands.

“I need you to perform a concussion test on me,” they said, “just to see if I've suffered any lasting brain damage.”

Mako swallowed a spoonful of cereal. “I don’t think I know how to do that, but I can look it up.” He typed the words into his phone and clicked the first link that looked legit. 

“Alright. I'm not sure if I'll be able to tell if you get these wrong, but we'll try” Mako shifted awkwardly in his chair “What's your full name?”

“Cassander Timaeus Berenice of House Pelagios” Cass responded after a slight pause.

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Two, both older. Euanthe and Sokrates.”

“What’s today's date?”

“It's...” Cass's eyes glazed over as they struggled to remember. “The hundred and fourth year of the Pelagios dynasty? Month two, no, three. Day fif-sixteen. Sixteen”

“Okay I have no idea how to fact check that, but that seemed to be a tough one for you. I super get it though, because I can never remember what day it is.” Mako studied Cass's face to see if they were about to start laughing, but they looked as serious as ever. He tossed his phone aside. “Well, as far as I can tell, you're like half and half on the concussion thing, but as long as you don’t go banging your head on things,  you probably won’t get any worse.”

“I assure you, I have no such plans.”

“I mean, I never plan to wipe out while skateboarding, but it still happens.” Mako shrugged.

Cass shot him a look of quiet exasperation. In response, Mako grinned and shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

  
  


Mako took off as many days as he thought he could miss with the excuse that he had given Orth, stretching the rest of his week into a long weekend. It helped that autumn was the start of the arcade’s off season, so no one was desperate to have him at work. It also helped that he had some money leftover from his last off-the-books job, so missing work wasn't going to kill him.

Cass, as a patient, was not exactly difficult to care for. Mako would leave them to fiddle with a puzzle game on his phone and come back a minute later to find them sleeping like the dead with the phone pressed against their face. At the same time, it seemed like they were up at all hours watching TV with rapt attention. Even when Mako emerged at 3 am from a Wikipedia binge, he walked into the living room to see Cass wrapped in a blanket, watching a conspiracy documentary about Atlantis.

“They're completely wrong about all this, you know,” they said, gesturing towards the screen. “Ancient Atlantis wasn't lost, it was abandoned when my ancestors had large advancements in technology and decided to leave this planet.”

“Okay first of all, I don't think that anyone thinks that these shows are telling the truth, and two, why didn't you say that you were from this planet?”

“I'm not from here any more than you're from the Mesopotamian river valley where your ancestors lived.” Cass shook their head. “All of that is ancient news. What matters are the places that you’ve been, and I've never been to Earth before now.”

Mako rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes  and looked at how the blue light of the TV cast a ghostly glow around the room, how it hit Cass, wrapped up in a blanket, in a way that made them look truly alien. There was something in their eyes that Mako recognized, something pushing them to stay awake no matter how tired they were. For Mako it was hyperfocusing on articles about different types of sandwiches. Somehow, he didn't think that a cheesy Atlantis documentary was the only thing keeping Cass up.

“You should go to sleep,” Mako said, “We both should, but you especially since you're the one who's hurt.” 

Sleeping arrangements were something they still hadn't totally figured out. Mako was more than willing to sacrifice his bed for someone who had crashed their spaceship, but then sometimes Cass fell asleep on the couch, and Mako wasn't going to give up the opportunity to sleep in a real bed. He wasn't sure which direction this night would go,  but if Cass wanted to sleep in the bed, then they were going to have to beat Mako there.

Mako moved to turn off the TV and as he did, Cass surged forward as if to stop him before collapsing back onto the couch.

“I can leave it on if you want,” Mako said.

“Please,” Cass replied, their shoulders slumping. “I just need something mindless right now.”

Mako nodded. Then, in a burst of inspiration, he turned quickly and went back into his room. When he returned, he had his own blanket bundled in his arms. He wrapped it around himself like a cape and plopped himself down on the couch next to Cass.

“Okay. School me on Atlantis.”

 

Mako woke to a sudden absence of pressure at his side and a rush of cold air seeping in underneath his blanket. He blinked at the morning light coming in from the windows, and at the program on the TV that was advertising a newer, sharper knife for only $19.99 plus shipping and handling. Cass crossed his field of vision on tiptoe, quiet enough that Mako probably wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't already awake.

“Mrfgheh?” he said, trying to form words while his mouth was focused on yawning.

Cass turned to look at him. “Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you.” They fiddled with the hem of the shirt they were wearing, an old t-shirt that Mako had shoved into the bottom of his drawer because it was too big, but which was still just a bit too small for Cass's long torso. “I was going to make breakfast. Do you want some?

“Do I even have stuff to make breakfast?” Mako mumbled, still finding the energy to talk.

“You have eggs and a frying pan, and that's all that I need” Cass replied. They ran a hand through their hair and picked at the tangles in their long, loose curls. “You can go back to sleep for a few minutes if you want. I’ll wake you up when breakfast is ready.”

“M'kay.” Mako slumped face-forward onto the couch. “Thanks.”

 

It felt like Mako had only blinked when Cass nudged him in the shoulder with a warm plate.

“Fried eggs and toast,” they said, handing it to him. “I would have made you an omelette, but you really didn’t have anything other than eggs and bread.”

“Vegetables and milk go bad too quickly,” Mako replied, looking down at his plate. The toast was cut into triangles, and he didn’t even remember having bread. He picked up the toast and dipped it into the still-runny yolk of the egg, spotted with speckles of salt and pepper. The only reason he kept eggs around was so that he could crack them into his ramen every so often and feel like he was being healthy. Even something so simple felt over the top.

For a few minutes there was only quiet chewing and the sound of forks clinking on plates. Cass elected to sit next to Mako on the couch rather than go back into the kitchen to eat at a real table, and their elbows bumped every so often as they ate. 

“I think this is the first time I’ve had a fried egg since I left school,” Mako said quietly, trying to start up some kind of conversation to fill the silence. “Pretty much everything in the dining hall there was garbage, but it’s hard to mess up a fried egg, so I ate one almost every morning.”

Cass looked up from their plate. “How long ago was that?”

Mako hummed. “Like five years ago now? Or more like six now that I think about it. I was only there for a year because my brain didn’t want to cooperate with me when I was trying to learn about things that I didn’t care about. Plus, that place sucked. So I dropped out and moved out on my own so that I wouldn’t have to live with my sister, or my mom, or my mom’s boyfriend. And now here I am.”

“Too much family drama?” Cass asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Not even.” Mako groaned and let his head flop back. “My sister’s this really great artist, and my mom’s like a genius scientist, and being around the two of them, I just feel like I’m not “living up to my potential” or whatever.” Mako rolled his eyes. “Also my mom’s boyfriend is a politician and I kind of hate his guts, so that’s reason enough to move out.”

“That much I understand.” Cass nodded. “My middle sibling hates my eldest sibling so much for continuing the empire that we were born into that they fled to a planet halfway across the star system to form their own system of government and declare war against the empire. Now I’m supposed to broker peace between my siblings even though the two of them haven’t spoken in years, and I can’t contact either of them because I’m stuck here.”

The room was silent for a moment as Mako paused in his chewing, trying not to let his mouth drop open.

“That’s, uhh, a bit of a different scale than me thinking that Ibex is a dick.” he said.

Cass burst out laughing, giggling so hard that they nearly ran out of air. The sight of them doubled over trying to catch their breath made Mako laugh too, and within seconds they were folded over, clutching each other for support and laughing until tears came to their eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Air for beta reading!


End file.
